HK Home Sales Fall 48% as Buyers Forfeit Deposits and More Asia Real Estate Headlines 

Hammered by typhoons, Hong Kong’s biggest storm might be in the property market as Mingtiandi’s roundup of real estate headlines opens today with news of a 48 percent drop in the city’s home sales this week, as investors abandon purchases, including homebuyers who forfeited HK$3.5 million in deposits and fees last week.

There’s also property pain in the mainland market, albeit of the policy-induced variety as home price growth goes flat in 24 of China’s largest cities, while developer Hang Lung remains confident in retail sales and a condo complex in one of SIngapore’s poshest districts goes up for collective sale.

HK Home Sales Fall 48% as Buyers Forfeit Deposits

Hong Kong homebuyers are having second thoughts about the biggest purchase of their lives, as nearly two months of unprecedented public unrest cast a pall over the city’s real-estate market.

Weekly transactions involving used homes fell to their lowest level this year on Sunday, according to one of the city’s largest real-estate agencies, while a dozen buyers this month decided against completing contracts for new homes worth more than HK$70 million ($8.9 million), forfeiting more than HK$3.5 million in deposits and other fees rather than making purchases. Read more>>

Mainland Housing Market Stalls

Home prices in 24 major Chinese cities stopped rising in June following measures to curb speculation, said a report by the National Academy of Economic Strategy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The 24 cities with no increase in home prices for the month include the four first-tier mega cities of Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou; four that closely follow in development – Tianjin, Chongqing, Suzhou and Hangzhou; and 16 others that are economically competitive across the country including Wuhan, Chengdu and Zhengzhou. Read more>>

Beijing Forswears Using Property Market to Jumpstart Economy

China will not use its real estate market to provide short-term stimulus to the economy, but will make fiscal policy more effective and take steps to cope with trade frictions, the official Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday, citing comments from the ruling Communist Party’s Politburo.

The Politburo also said China’s economy is facing increasing downward pressure and that Beijing will take various measures including boosting domestic consumption, stabilising foreign trade and employment, Xinhua said. Read more>>

Condo Site in SIngapore’s Bukit Timah Up for Sale at S$536M

The Watten Estate Condominium, a freehold complex in Singapore’s Bukit Timah area, goes up for collective sale on 30 July with a reserve price of S$536 million ($392 million). This translates to a land rate of $1,738 per square foot per plot ratio, sole marketing agent Huttons said on Monday (29 July).

The 104-unit development is located in Shelford Road, and is zoned for residential use with a gross plot ratio of 1.4. It has a sprawling land area of 220,234 square feet and a total allowable gross floor area of 308,341 square feet. Read more>>

Hang Lung Confident That Sales Will Remain Steady

Hang Lung Properties, a major Hong Kong-based landlord and property developer, expressed optimism over “steady” growth in retail sales even as ongoing protests in the city cast a shadow over the outlook for consumer demand.

“Recent developments make people think that retail sales will slow down, but we hope it won’t result in a huge drop for us,” Weber Lo, chief executive at Hang Lung Properties, told reporters at a news conference in Hong Kong. “We have confidence that retail sales will be steady.” Read more>>

Owner of India’s Answer to Starbucks Goes Missing

The millionaire behind India’s answer to Starbucks has disappeared, triggering a search, suspicions of suicide and a 20 percent plunge in the shares of his company, Coffee Day Enterprises.

V G Siddhartha is chairman and managing director of the company behind India’s biggest coffee chain, Café Coffee Day, which has more than 1,700 outlets He was last seen Monday evening on a bridge in the city of Mangalore, said Hanumantharaya, deputy commissioner of police in the southern city. Read more>> 

Tune in again tomorrow for more news, and be sure to follow @Mingtiandi on Twitter, or bookmark Mingtiandi’s LinkedIn page for headlines as they happen.